Summer Succotash with Bacon

We have made this for farm dinners before with great success!  We love it with the bacon, but you could easily omit the bacon and still have a delicious dish.  I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen to use heirlooms instead of cherry tomatoes (because who wants to cut all those cherry tomatoes?  Not I…)  You could also cube the eggplant and substitute it for the beans in the recipe. That makes it a very different dish, but still delicious.  

--Jenna Muller

1 lb fresh shelling beans or 1 cup frozen baby lima beans, shelled (or eggplant)
1/4 lb bacon (4-ish slices)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, or more if you are not using the bacon
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove
1 or 2 medium sized heirloom tomatoes, chopped into bite sized chunks
All the corn from your box, kernels removed
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1/4 cup basil leaves

Cook the beans in boiling, salted water for about 5 minutes (or 20 minutes if using the fresh cranberry beans).  Drain and set aside.Cook the bacon over moderate heat in a large skillet until crisp.  Remove from the pan and crumble it in a bowl.  Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat.  Add the oil to the bacon fat and cook the onion, stirring frequently, until softened.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add the tomatoes, corn and vinegar and cook, stirring until the tomatoes are soft and are losing their shape.  Remove from the heat and stir in the cooked beans and half of the bacon.  When the succotash is at room temperature, stir in the basil, and some salt and pepper.  Taste and add a bit more sherry vinegar if needed.  Sprinkle with the remaining bacon!